Council itself is split ahead of Monday’s vote on whether to use downtown car lanes for four barrier-separated “cycle track” routes as a one-year trial for at least $9.3 million, or install only a few or do nothing.

To some degree, it harkens back to the debate around the $25-million Peace Bridge for downtown pedestrians, when council first approved it six years ago.

But it’s also been repeated in cities throughout North America. In Toronto, Mayor Rob Ford removed one set of lanes to repel the “War on Cars.” In Ottawa, one major road took on temporary cycle trails and quickly saw triple the daily bike traffic, though rider numbers plummeted in winter and condo dwellers protested the loss of parking near their towers.

So it plays out, in the parkades and bike racks of Calgary.

“For some people, it’s a necessity to have a their vehicle for work, like myself. It might convolute things and make traffic a little bit heavier,” said Patrick Dutton, descending into a parkade to get home to Brentwood this week.

“I’m appreciative of what they’re trying to do, but it might not work.”

To bike commuter Joanne Liu, it’s about time that we put some emphasis on her transportation choice.

“I hear a lot of friends who’d prefer to bike, but they just don’t because they don’t feel safe biking among traffic,” she said, as she unlocked her ride from the racks at Suncor Energy Centre this week.

For those who haven’t yet tried Calgary’s separated first cycle track along 7th Street S.W. — this reporter gave it a spin this week — it feels like tranquilly biking on a riverside pathway that’s flanked by skyscrapers.

Navigating mixed traffic on two wheels, meanwhile can feel like jogging along the curb of a busy road.

For passing cars, the experience also differs accordingly.

With only one secure lane now in the core, several thousand downtown workers take the latter option every day during warm months, cycling co-ordinator Tom Thivener said. Most take quiet streets where they can, or compete on sidewalks where they feel safer.

Downtown bike commuters are more likely to roll in from districts that enjoy safety of the pathways, like Wildwood or Silver Springs, than nearby neighbourhoods like Sunalta and Mard Loop, the 2011 city census showed.

The proposed cycle track would turn more than 7.3 kilometres of car lanes into a network where cars and pedestrians are banned in hopes of nearly doubling Calgary’s downtown cyclist levels, from a 2.5-per-cent commuter share to four per cent.

Foe and fan alike acknowledge it’s a change for Calgary. The city core hasn’t lost this much automobile space all at once since 1981, when 7th Avenue was handed over to Calgary Transit’s new CTrain line.

Thivener sees an earlier precedent for his transportation planning team’s vision: in grainy, century-old photos of downtown streets. They show a mix of bikes, horse-drawn carriages, folks standing around or strolling, and the odd automobile.

“All sharing the same space. Back then, everything went pretty slow and everyone could coexist,” he said.

“Over time in Calgary and across North America we optimized everything to move automobiles very very quickly. And so now we’re asking how do we make it attractive again to cyclists.”

With so much inner-city population and job growth en route, it’s the sensible way to bring more people into core that can’t handle more road expansions, officials have told council.

Bill Partridge worries it will backfire. Badly.

Downtown employees commonly grumble about cost and scarcity of parking, the packed buses and trains, and motorists’ slow afternoon escape, the local president for the Building Owners and Managers Association said.

Taking away road space, he worries, could be the final straw that prompts more firms to follow Imperial Oil’s lead and move to suburban office parks.

“What happens when the perception or the resistance factors get so high people don’t want to come downtown to work? What happens when they convey that message to their employer?” he asks.

“And we know those discussions are going on in corporate Calgary right now.”

Office developers show more confidence in downtown cycling’s future. Many new skyscraper have planned far more bicycle parking spots than city rules require, and developers of the Bow tower and Telus Sky have written support letters.

Councillors who have heard Partridge’s opposition to downtown bike lanes get contrary advice from Calgary Chamber of Commerce, which expects companies will enjoy healthier workers and more recruits lured by a more bike-friendly city.

The plan to use a lane on 1st Street S.E. for two-way bike travel has attracted the biggest fears of clogged traffic arteries, but chamber policy director Justin Smith trusts city predictions the pain will be minor.

“I think that’s something we can live with, or something we can at least track and observe.”

Other business groups are also all over the opinion map. Chinatown merchants firmly oppose, Victoria Park’s group is a big supporter, while the Calgary Downtown Association hopes above all that bikes are kept off the daytime pedestrian sanctuary known as Stephen Avenue.

But even on that street, some restaurants and shops have window signs declaring, “We Support the Cycle Track Network.” Unlike with the Peace Bridge, for which opposition was vociferous but support was muted, bike lane proponents have secured public endorsements from everyone from business groups to MLAs (one Liberal, one Tory), public health doctors and an Olympic skating medallist.

“It was a little bit of a push at first to raise awareness of what we we’re trying to do, but after that it all just sort of snowballed and we had people stepping forward,” said Beltline resident Peter Oliver, who helped organize and promote the groundswell.

Bike lane advocates are out in force on Twitter, where they face heavy conservative pushback — most notably from Coun. Sean Chu, who riles bike fans by reporting empty cycle lanes he has driven by.

He’s gotten in trouble with colleagues for crudely questioning the city bureaucrats’ bike counts. He is not letting up.

“They want to push their stats. Do we really see like 12,000 bikes, like even today? You just don’t see that,” he said Thursday.

“I worked downtown for 15 years. I know what the traffic’s like. Even if the policeman pulls over traffic for five minutes, 10 minutes, the traffic’s just jammed like you won’t believe.”

Coun. Druh Farrell, who was at the forefront of the Peace Bridge debate, finds the criticism out of proportion to the impact or cost. The next three suburban interchanges approved for coming years range from $20 million to $102 million, and attract much less public scrutiny.

Yet she understands the surprise in some quarters.

“It’s a shift in priorities. It’s a visible representation of that shift. And also just a shift in how we build our city and how we use our city,” she said.

The cyclists may be hard to see, but the counts show they’re out there, Thivener said. At Suncor Energy tower, workers who arrive after 8 a.m. can’t find a bike rack spot on nice days. Other buildings have waiting lists for underground bike storage.

“Of course cyclists are the minority,” he said. “We know that they’re the lowest mode, but also the fastest-growing mode.”

Read more opinions from Calgarians who bike ordrive downtown. They’re varied, and not always in the way you’d expect.

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